host: we are talking with mark murray of nbc news. this look ahead at the 2014 campaign. he points out there is a wild card in the midterm elections next year, the president. presidents normally don't inject themselves as aggressively as obama is promising to do. already he has committed to doing eight fundraisers this year and no telling how many next year to help the democrats win back the house of representatives. guest: that is one of the theories that a matter what ends up happening, the midterm election is always difficult for the incumbent president's party. voters always seem to take out their frustrations on any type of things going on on the cumbent party. there's another theory, too. the modern two-term presidents we have had have only had one bad midterm cycle. bill clinton had his very bad midterm cycle in 1994, but then in 1998, right after impeachment, he went unscathed. some democrats are hoping that after we took a beating in 2010, 2014 will not be as bad. if you look at the map when it comes to senate races, the democrats are going to be playing defense.